


Seeing What It's Like

by positivitymoth



Category: Original Work
Genre: Cute, Gay, Gay Panic, I swear, Idk what to tag this with, M/M, Private School, Set in 2019 or 2020 ish, Wholesome, based on a tiktok, but only loosely, probably been done before, uwu
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-22
Packaged: 2020-12-14 17:40:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21019667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/positivitymoth/pseuds/positivitymoth
Summary: A posh boy from a London private school begins attending a regular public school in Leicester. What could go wrong?





	1. Overexcited New Lad

I woke up groggy. It was the first day of year nine. The year where you choose your GCSEs and all in all things start getting a tad more serious. I went to your standard secondary school. Honestly, from what I've heard they don't really differ that much at all from place to place here. It was just your basic UK public school population; horse girls, chavs, roadmen, normal students and maybe the occasional weeaboo or k-pop stan.

I wasn't expecting anything too serious on the first day, yet I was still scared. I was just going to meet up with my regular friend group at around 8:00, just to ensure that we wouldn't be late.

I put my school uniform on, and slowly trudged downstairs to grab some Weetabix. Standard breakfast, y'know? Popped to the bathroom, took a piss, brushed my teeth, grabbed my bags and went on my way to the meet up spot.

8:15. They're still not here. 8:20. 8:25. I had to get going, I'll just ask them why I didn't see them when I get to school.

And so, I set off on my way. By the time I got there the bell was already ringing, so I just rushed into form as fast as my weary legs could carry me. I got there just at the right time, just as my form tutor was about to begin taking the register. I sat my bags down behind my chair and started staring into space, but as it turns out I ended up staring at a person. Fucking typical (and quite frankly embarrassing).

This aforementioned person was clearly new, and had clearly noticed my grave mistake of looking at them. Before I knew it, they were coming over to me. I was scared. I've never been the best at talking to people, let alone making a good impression and making friends.

And there it was.

“Hello! I'm Avery, what's your name?” he said. His voice was... very southern. Kind of like a London accent, although that's actually quite a broad spectrum if you think about it... Let's just say he had a posh accent.

“A-ah! Hello, um, Avery. My name's Alex. Haha...” I replied, obviously very nervous.

He nodded, “Oh, lovely name! Can you show me your timetable? I want to see who I have lessons with.” Avery spoke.

“Sure,” I said. I handed him my planner and watched him flip to the page with the timetable on.

He ran his eyes over the page, nodded a couple of times, and then handed it back to me.

“We have woodworking, science and P.E together. Excellent! I'll see you at break, by the way.” he said before walking back to his assigned seat.

'See you at break?' I thought. What did that mean? He wanted to hang out with me of all people? Wow, okay. I'll be prepared.

While I was at it, I looked over my lessons for the day. I had English first period, and then science second. Right before break. How convenient. Oh well.

My form tutor dismissed us to go to our lessons, and what a boring first lesson I had. I had a different teacher from the previous year and you better believe he was as boomer as boomer could be. Someone's phone slipped out of their pocket and the teacher had nothing to say but “You millennials and Gen Z, always attached to your bloody phones,”. Poor kid got their phone confiscated, but I suppose it was kind of expected. Not to mention they had that teacher last year, and as soon as the teacher saw the pride pins on their bag they were instantly the least favourite student, but that's a story for another day.

Needless to say, English was a drag. It felt like hours before it ended, but when it did I was relieved. I snatched up my bags faster than Lightning McQueen on heroin and zoomed out of the classroom.

I stepped into the science classroom and the teacher already had the seating plan up on the board. I grabbed my pencil case, sat my belongings near the pegs and plopped myself down on my seat. There were only a few people in the class at that moment, after all, the English teacher had let us out around three minutes early. A couple of minutes later the rest of the class came flooding in. I was fiddling around with my pencil when I saw someone sit down next to me in my peripheral vision. I turned my head to the right and there was the boy from earlier, Avery.

“Alex, hi! Oh, isn't it convenient that I'm sitting right next to you? Ah, the day is going well already!” Avery exclaimed. He sure was excited.

“Aha yea-” I said before being cut off by someone grabbing my shoulders from behind.

“GOTCHA!” a voice said from behind me.

I whipped my head around, only to be met with the goofy face of my best friend since primary school: Bethany.

“Bethany! Fuck! You scared me!” I said, chuckling a little.

“Sorry I wasn't there to meet up with you guys in the morning! I had a dentists appointment... But! Ya girl won't be getting a late detention because the school knows!” she said.

Typical Bethany. Always overly excited and narrowly avoiding punishments. I still wonder why the others weren't there, though. I suppose we'll have to see.

The teacher quietened the class down and we all got to work. No practicals today, though. What a shame, they've always been my favourite part. Oh well, hopefully we'll be doing something at least a bit more interesting next lesson.

The lesson soon ended and we were all heading out to break. I went and sat down at the spot I always had, Bethany soon following. We were both sat there, and then we were unsurprisingly accompanied by Avery. He was sitting uncomfortably close to me. Is that, like, normal in the south? To get really close to people you've only know for, like, two hours? Who knows.

We were all talking casually, until I felt a vibration in my pocket. I took my phone out to see that my mum had texted me.

“Hold on. What kind of phone is that?” Avery said, sounding... Oddly distressed and confused.

“Oh, it's an iPhone SE. Why?” I asked.

“Oh boy, you people up here really are cheap. Aha...” he replied.

“Cheap? This is standard here, to be honest. And what do you mean 'up here'? This is only the East Midlands.” I said back, confused and maybe a tad offended.

“Oh!” he said, “I just used to go to a private school in London, everyone had Xs and the occasional S10.”

“Hold your horses, you went to a PRIVATE SCHOOL? And now you're attending a grimy public school in Leicester?” I practically shouted.

“Well, yes! My mother got a job opportunity here, and she offered to get me into the grammar school in some town we're living in close by here. I refused just out of sheer curiosity to see how the middle and lower class live, and to my shock I'm enjoying it so far!” he explained.

All I could think was, 'You won't be enjoying it soon, mate...' as he continued rambling. Soon, break had ended and we went to our next classes. I didn't have any classes with Avery before lunch, but both I did have with Bethany. The time went by quick, and before I knew it it was lunch.

I rushed into the dinner hall, and was fifth in line to grab some Pasta King. Public school delicacy, am I right? I left the lunch hall and went back to my usual spot to see Bethany and Avery having a chat with one another.

“Well, I personally think she was a good character! I mean, the whole idea of getting someone else to pose as her was genius!” Bethany was saying excitedly to Avery.

I sat on the bench next to Bethany and leaned to the side a bit.

“What are you guys talking about?” I asked.

“Just a game we both seem to have an interest in.” Avery said, a smile on his face, “Ah!” I know! You should come to my house some time and we could play it together! When are you available?”

I was taken aback. An offer like that this early on in the friendship? I was intimidated but pleased.

“Well,” I said, thinking about when I'd be available to hang out, “I'm available most days. My family never really makes plans.”

Avery clapped his hands a little.

“Wonderful! Text your parents, we shall begin today after school.”


	2. Gaming and Woodworking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex goes to Avery's house to play the game he talked about, and the next day engage in some fun conversations with one of Alex's friends.

Last period sped by incredibly fast. Soon, the school day was over and I was ready to play this game with Avery. He met me outside of my class along with Bethany. We walked outside of the school, but Bethany had to go on her way without us. Avery took me to where his car was so we could go to his house, and by God was this car strange. Now it was no Lamborghini, but it was way more posh than what I had at home. Avery introduced me to his driver and we got in.

We didn't really talk much on the way there. We just kind of... Sat and enjoyed each other's company. God, that sounded bloody cheesy. Whatever. The ride wasn't too far, so we were out of the car within twenty minutes or so. Avery lived on the higher class side of this town, and boy were these houses nicer than any I'd lived in. I just live in a regular old flat, and I'm going to be stepping foot into an actual nice house. Wow.

We finally got to his house, and when we approached the door Avery held his arm out in front of me just below my torso to prevent me from going any further. He unlocked the door for me and then gestured for me to go in.

“Ladies first,” said Avery.

“I'm not even a woman,” I said.

“I know, just... Take it as you will and proceed, aha,” Avery replied

I stepped past the door slowly, almost hesitantly. I stood near the shoe rack and waited for Avery to come in and tell me what to do.

“Take off your shoes and put them on the rack, please,” Avery said with a smile.

“O-okay,” I said, putting my thumb between my foot and the back of my shoe, taking them off and placing them on the rack.

Avery did the same after me and then he led me into the living room. He had a fairly large TV in there along with a couple of consoles. He plopped himself down on the sofa and patted the space next to him. I lowered myself on to the space he had patted.

Avery picked up the TV remote and pressed the button to turn it on. He then stood up and grabbed the case for the game he wanted to play with me, opening it and slotting the disc into one of his consoles.

He booted the console up and switched on the game. The loading screen was an image of two characters on either side of the screen, with the title of the game in the middle. Some funky mystery music was playing in the background, quite catchy if you ask me.

“You ready?” Avery asked.

“O-oh!” I stuttered, I must have drifted off, “Yeah, definitely! Go on ahead.”

Avery smiled softly at me, his eyes closed, before turning around and pressing play.

I was at his house for a good few hours playing the game, and we were about to finish the first chapter before my curfew arrived. I was driven back to my house, both Avery and I in the back seats chatting about the game we had been playing. Avery was trying hard not to slip up and spoil the outcome, seeing as he had played the game before and was currently on the third.

We got to the block of flats I lived in about five minutes after my curfew. Before I got out of the car Avery gave me a small hug before saying goodbye, and honestly it was quite nice. I never really got that many hugs at home so any affection I get makes me feel appreciated... And maybe a little fuzzy inside.

I got out my keys and stepped into my flat. It was quite boring at home, I just didn't have much to do. We didn't have any actual games so I had to rely on shitty mobile games and walkthroughs. My parents don't really talk to me either, so that's off the table.

“I'm home,” I shouted so my parents knew I had returned.

“Okay,” I heard from the living room.

I went to my room and decided to go through Instagram. That's always fun, right? I decided to look on the recommended accounts section to see if there were any new accounts that I took a fancy to. Most of it was just meme pages and a few walking Wotsits from my school, but I managed to find something interesting.

Avery's account.

It said that Bethany was following him so that must have been why he came up in the recommendations. They must have shared accounts when I was in the line for my Pasta King. I followed him and then decided to DM him. I was bored and wanted to talk to someone, y'know?

But, then again, what if this isn't him? Well, it has to be, right? It literally has him as the profile picture. God, I hate DMing people but I just wanted to talk to somebody. I guess if I have the wrong person I can just hit Bethany up. Hopefully she's awake, though. She gets tired usually and ca sometimes go to bed as early as 7:30.

“Fuck it,” I whispered to myself, “Let's just get this over with.”

I DMed him a quick message saying “hi :)” and threw my phone to the other end of the bed. I don't like looking at responses. You never know what they're going to say, and quite honestly it's terrifying.

I laid there for a couple of minutes, hand on my forehead, contemplating what I'd just done. That was until I heard I ping from my phone. I got back up and reluctantly reached for my phone and turned it over, dramatically squinting one eyes as if someone had thrown a ball at me and it missed me only slightly.

Alas, it was a reply. I pressed on it, and it was just a simple “Hello! Who is this?”. Just your standard response, but scary nonetheless. I quickly typed in a reply that said, “it's alex. this is avery right??” and went off of the app as quickly as possible.

I had a reply almost instantly. Boy, he was quick.

“Oh my God, hi! Yes, this is Avery! How did you find my account?” the message read.

“oh, you just came up in my recommended follows haha” I replied.

“Fabulous! This means we'll be able to talk more often! :D”

“yeah lol, that's good :)”

Thank fuck it was him. That almost gave me a bloody heart attack, but I suppose it ended in something good happening.

We messaged back and forth for about twenty minutes until my dad came into my room telling me I had to go to bed. I texted him a goodnight, brushed my teeth, got changed and went to sleep. Wonder how tomorrow's going to be.

My alarm went off at 6:30, as it always has. I did the usual. Got up, got dressed, got breakfast, cleaned my teeth, and all that other jazz. Didn't bother saying bye to my parents, they couldn't give two shits if I went missing for good. I popped my earphones into my ears and went on my way to school. To my surprise, I was actually quite early. There was a good fifteen minutes before the bell rang, so I decided to just sit at the bench I usually sat at with the lads.

One of the lads was actually there, though none of the others were. Was their idea just to come to school individually so the group progressively gets larger each day? God knows.

“Hey, Alex!” he said, on the verge of shouting.

“Hi John,” I replied.

I walked over to the bench and took my earphones out of my ears before sitting down. John was in his usual attire, the schools uniform covered by a puffer jacket with a Nike cap atop his head. He looked like your stereotypical roadman, though he was nothing like one when it came to behaviour and general mannerisms. He was one of the top performing students in the year group with almost perfect scores on all of previous assessments. I think the lowest grade he's ever gotten was a 6, and even that was in early year seven. Long story short, he probably had “roadmen DNI” on his Instagram bio. That's if he had an interest in social media.

Five minutes went by before Avery finally came along. He seemed fairly cheery as he sat down next to me, a soft smile on his face.

“Hi!” Avery said.

“H-hi Avery,” I replied.

“How are you today?” he asked.

“I'm okay I suppose,”

“Wonderful!” Avery clapped his hands a little, before pointing at John and saying “Who is this? I take it another one of your middle or lower class friends, yes?”

“A-ah!” I spluttered out, “Y-yes! This is John. Uhm, I've been friends with him since year se-”

“Hello, Avery! My name's John. It's a bit impolite of you to assume that I'm lower class, but I'll let it slide this time around.” John said, cutting me off.

“Oh my!” Avery said while nodding a bit, “This one's quick to react. Lovely! I look forward to working with you, John!”

We all carried on with our conversations for a bit until the bell rang for us to go inside. We all began walking inside, and as usual Bethany caught up to us on the way to class. She always only just made it, but she was never late. We got into our form room and looked at our schedules for the day. I had most of my lessons with John, a few of them with Bethany and only one of them with Avery which was double woodworking. Does that count as two lessons? I wouldn't know. Some would say it does because it takes up the space of two periods, but some others say it's just one. As for me, I'm mixed on the situation but it's not really that important.

And so, the day went on. But as breaktime ended it was time for my two periods of woodworking. Who knows what we're going to do this term? Avery walked with me into class and so the lesson began. We could tell that teacher was unbelievably worn out, after all he was a form tutor for year ten and was probably tired of all their shit.

At first we were just making designs for clocks that we could make, and all the while Avery was leaning over to see what I was doing.

“You're such a good artist!” he exclaimed.

“No, I'm not, aha. I'm mediocre at best,” I said back meekly.

“Well, your designs are sure as hell better than mine, I'll say.”

At this, I leaned over to see his designs. What the fuck did he mean by “Your designs are sure as hell better than mine,”? They were beautiful! He drew some really pretty flowers that complimented the background colours he used. He must have had some really good art lessons in that private school in order for him to be able to that.

“Woah. Those are really nice,” I said, and then I looked back up at him, “Are you sure you'll be able to get those on the clock? We don't have many supplies to get art that nice on it.”

“I'll find a way,” he said, followed by a smile.

I have a feeling that this lesson will be fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For all you Americans, a grade 6 is equivalent to a grade slightly higher than a B. Maximum grade you can get is a 9 (equivalent to just above an A*) or 9+ I think, but I'm not sure. I think it's a 9, but I've heard of someone in my school getting a 9+ on something.  
Only time I've ever gotten a 9 was on a history assessment in year seven, and even then I think they were a bit too lenient. I recently got an 8+ in a geography assessment which is surprising because I thought I would be really shit at that.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know shit about what happens in year nine apart from picking GCSEs. I'm only in year eight oops-


End file.
